Yesterday, July 31, I finished the sixth pair of "sporty-shorty" summer socks for 2015. One to go, before going back to longer socks. This pair combined two "leftover" yarns from longer socks. The green is Ella rae Classic, color #90, which is actually more emerald than the picture shows. The blue is Cascade 220 Paints "Isle of Sky," unfortunately a discontinued color. The white, bought for striping, is Cascade 220.

The variation in "Isle of Sky" shows up better from this angle: it's subtle, and lovely.

I still need to finish weaving in the yarn ends in these. Their name is "Mountain Holiday" because they express the opposite of the Summer Sun socks: cool meadows and forests, water, crisp air. We are living in Summer Sun times now (grass crispy and brown, very hot, water restrictions...) so Mountain Vacation socks will remind me of the two times I got to go to the mountains in summer for awhile. This pair gave me problems--the second sock cast on, I attempted to do the heel turn in the evening when tired and also watching TV, and bollixed it so badly the only thing to do was rip everything back--and then I couldn't get a "clean" pickup of the live stitches. So I cast on another one--which also gave me problems but something I could fix . This is the 43rd pair of socks--and the 13th of the short socks--that I've knit; you've think I'd be able to do it easily and without problems. Nope. I'm not that good yet and may never be. (Also--it's really not smart to try turning a heel in inadequate light while watching TV or otherwise distracted. More experienced knitters than I have said that.)

The last pair of these shorties for now is about to be cast on (after a nap--this weather!!) and will be the opposite of the 4th of July pair: top, heel, and toe will be red, and the stripes on the foot will be blue & white. Reading the colors from the top, it really will be "red, white, and blue" so that will be its name. Why that? Because, having made two pairs of solid red socks earlier in the year, I have plenty of leftover red yarn to use up. I had quite a bit of green, so...these were "framed" in green.

Then it's immediately on to taller socks. One for me, one for a friend, the more for me later. Counting socks finished this year (though two pairs were started late last fall) I've knit seven pairs of crew socks with taller cuffs (six for myself, one for a friend) and six of the shorties. And socks have worn out since the start of the year, too, from the first year and half of sock making. Pretty much expected.

That's a clever idea--thanks for the link and a picture. I've thought of making something like a hanging device with a holder for each color, that could be rotated whichever way will keep the yarns untangled, but I suspect (given my "success" with mobiles in the past) that I could create a monster, Either it would fall out of the ceiling onto me, shedding balls of yarn as it came, or it would make tangling worse. When I have only two yarns "going", I can put them both in one plastic bag, side by side, and just flip the bag back and forth when I change colors. With three or more, I have to turn the work upside down at times and rotate IT, or pick up balls and work them through the strands from other yarns until it's clear.

Great minds--someone else sent me a link to that. I was thinking it would be (if thicker yarn) good for strips that could be used in a guest-room to mark the closet door, bathroom door, or any immovable obstacles someone might bump into in the dark.